Cooking Resources

With times being tough for many people out there, buying luxury food and drinks isn’t a top priority. Yet cutting back on spending and being more frugal with money doesn’t have to mean you can indulge your inner chef. These 100 blogs explain how you can be more of a frugal gourmet, allowing you to pinch pennies while still getting to fill your stomach with all the delicious food you love.

General

These blogs offer some great tips, recipes and ideas for eating well while saving money.

CheapEats.ie: This Irish website is a great place to look for tips on budget foods, shopping well and much more.

Frugal Cooking: Here you’ll find recipes and tips for cooking food that’s not only healthy and tasty, but inexpensive as well.

The Cheap Gourmet: For those who want to eat the best but don’t want to pay outrageous prices, this blog can be a great place to find recipes and suggestions.

Almost Frugal Food: From gadgets that can help you cook more cheaply to recipes that look and taste expensive without the painful price tag, this blog has loads to offer frugal foodies.

$5 Dinners: Learn how to stretch your dollars further with these ideas for dinner that are on the cheap side but don’t sacrifice taste.

Frugal Connoisseur: Check out this blog that will give you the lowdown on frugal foods from wine and beer to chocolate and cheese.

Budget Gourmet Kitchen: This blogger explains ways that you can use items from your own garden, seasonal veggies and more to create indulgent, delicious items. Best of all, you won’t go broke doing it.

Make It from Scratch: Shun those processed foods and learn to make just about anything from scratch from this blog with everything from wonderful recipes to baby products.

Foodie on a Budget: Part of the website Chow, this blog is home to loads of articles and tips that can help you eat well.

The Budget Foodie: Learn to do gourmet for less from this blog that provides grocery shopping tips, cool frugal products and yummy recipes.

The Laid Off Gourmet: Feeling the pinch because you’re between jobs? You’re not the only one. This blogger helps you keep up with your taste for well-made foods while keeping your spending in check.

Choosy Beggars: These bloggers show that just because you’re short on funds doesn’t mean you have to just take any old food that comes your way. Check out the site for tons of great recipes that won’t set you back a ton.

Frugal Cooks

These cooks show you some simple ways to create high end meals and low end costs.

Sanaa Cooks: This Mediterranean chef shares her recipes, many of which are vegan or gluten free, and none of which will cost you a fortune to make.

Dude, Where’s the Stove?: With posts that provide dollar recipes, this blogger and foodie’s site is a great resource for finding good food for less. Some recipes even include cost information so you’ll know just what you’re getting into when cooking.

The 99 Cent Chef: This blogger cooks and finds meals that costs, you guessed it, 99 cents. For those who are looking for alternatives to those packages of ramen, this site can be a great inspiration.

Too Many Chefs: This frugal chef will help you learn to follow the old adage "waste not, want not." You’ll find tips to help you cut your spending while still filling your belly.

Frugal Recipes: With recipes that have been created or tweaked to be more affordable, this blog can will help you learn to make simple things for less.

Cheap Cooking.com: Check out this site for cheap recipes designed for the family as well as tips for saving big at the grocery store.

CheapRecipes: Need to save money because times are tough for you? These recipes are designed to do just that.

Burgers Today: Have a craving for a delicious burger but can’t deal with the cost of eating out? This site is full of recipes for the best burgers that you can make from your own home.

One Frugal Foodie: This blogger believes that eating well shouldn’t be expensive and offers loads of recipes that are both delicious and reasonably priced.

The Economical Epicurean: Foodies can find recipes in this blog that will meet their needs for the finer foods without requiring an expansive wallet.

The Haute Kitchen: Enjoy the haute cuisine recipes in this blog, many of which use affordable, seasonable ingredients.

Eat Food Not Money Cookbook: The recipes on this blog are designed to help you eat like a king without the royal budget. Best of all, you’ll get price listings for all the posts.

Ginger Lemon Girl: Love southern cooking? Can’t have gluten? This blog is perfect for you then, with loads of frugal and yummy recipes.

Family Cooking

These blogs will provide great advice on cooking cheap and healthy food for a whole family, not just yourself.

Frugal Homekeeping: This mom provides her favorite recipes and ideas for eating well on a budget.

Cheap Family Meals: Feeding a family on a budget can be a struggle sometimes, especially if you want them to eat well. Recipes found here can help make it a little easier.

Frugal Feasts: Between the two of them, these moms have 13 kids, and feeding them well is no easy feat. Check out the site for tips and recipes.

Cheap Cookin’ Mama: This mom shares her tips for cutting costs on healthy meals for her kids.

Frugal Family Foodies: Here you’ll find recipes and ideas for meals for a family that are made with seasonal, fresh ingredients.

Frantic Home Cook: You feeling frantic? Trying to quickly get a meal together for the family? This site is full of last minute recipes that are fancy, tasty and frugal.

The Daily Dish: Check out this site for family friendly recipes that won’t leave your wallet empty.

Makeshift Meals: Ever had to make due with cooking what’s around the house? This blog is the perfect place to find delicious recipes for those last minute meals when you just don’t have time to make it to the store.

Save a Dime in ’09: This practical mom of two shares her secrets for keeping things frugal, planning meals, and making healthy food.

Prudence Pennywise: Billed as "scandalously good food on a budget" with the purpose of sharing ideas of how to feed a family of 4 on less than $100 a week.

Student Eating

Just because you’re a student without much money doesn’t mean you can’t eat well. Check out these blogs for tips and suggestions.

Gourmet on a Grant: This student loves good food and drink but has a limited budget. Posts on his blog provide ideas on ways to eat well even if you don’t have a ton of resources.

The Frugal Gourmand: This blog is full of recommendations of ways that those in college and beyond can eat cheaply, with the majority of posts focusing on those guilty pleasures like fast food.

The Starving Student: Just because you’re a student doesn’t mean you’re stuck eating pre-packaged foods. This blogger details ways to eat healthy while staying under budget.

HungryGrad: This grad student is trying to eat well on a shoestring budget, providing reviews and recipes to aid other students in the same boat.

Beyond Baked Beans: This blog offers some great, cheap alternatives to crappy, pre-packaged foods common with college students.

Cheap Eats: Sometimes cost means more than quality, and for those days, this blog can provide essential advice. You’ll find reviews of the cheapest eats out there.

Veggies and Vegans

Here you’ll learn how to cook frugal and delicious food, without harming any animals in the process.

Dinner’s Ready: These vegan bloggers share some delicious and healthy recipes on their blog.

As the world becomes more aware of animal rights, environmental issues, and the benefits of a plant-based local diet, interest in the vegan, vegetarian, and locavore lifestyle grows. As such, there are many different resources for ethical diets online. We’ve listed 100 of the best of these, which offer recipes, ethical shopping, information, and so much more.

Recipes

With these recipe sites, you’ll find everything you need to create a tasty ethical meal.

International Vegetarian Union: The International Vegetarian Union supports vegetarianism worldwide, and offers visitors resources for finding veggie-friendly lodging, restarurants, and stores around the world.

While everyone has to eat, only those true foodies are absolutely devoted to their food. Whether you make it professionally, as a hobby, or just love to eat good food, you will find search engines from this list below to make your nose and tongue sing. From recipes to ethnic foods to restaurants to local farmer’s markets to wine and beer, these search engines will help you find exactly what you want when it comes to creating and appreciating delicious food and beverages.

Recipes

There is absolutely no reason any food lover should ever be at a loss for what to cook. These search engines will keep you stocked with all types of recipes.

FoodieView. This recipe search engine will help you find what you are looking for with over 1 million recipes available.

Five Mushrooms. Use this search engine to find recipes from real people just like you.

Epicurious Recipes. Search for both Epicurious recipes and recipes submitted by members with this search engine.

Food & Wine Recipes. Find a recipe by the type of food or the Food Network. The search possibilities are flexible with this search engine which allows you to look for a recipe by quick meals, what’s in season, the chef who created it, or searching the entire site.

Food Down Under. Search from over 200,000 recipes or browse by category to find what you are wanting to cook.

Seafood Watch. This search tool will let you know all about specific seafood and if it is a sustainable choice.

Environmental Defense Fund Seafood Selector. Find out what seafood and the specific species are ecologically smart to eat. They also provide health concerns for fish and seafood high in mercury or other contaminants.

Green Maven. Use this search engine to find healthy resources on topics such as health food stores, food, diet, nutrition, and more.

FitFood.com Recipe Search. Find recipes tailored to your healthy choices with categories such as rich in grains, low carb, or rich in fruits.

Nutrition

Find out nutritional value of everything from asparagus to fast food, or get information to help you eat more nutritiously with the information available from these search engines.

NutraWatch Food Finder. Discover the nutrition in your food when you search for anything from baby food to fast food to vegetables.

Fast Food Facts. Find out all about the nutrition in your favorite fast food with this search tool.

In the culinary world, food isn’t the only thing with a rabid following. Beer and wine are important to a foodie’s palate as well. You’ll find that many alcohol enthusiasts choose to take their love for beer and wine online in the form of blogs, and we’ve highlighted 100 of the best here.